11 months!

This picture and the two month shot have been the hardest to get...so wiggly! I wanted their California themed shirts to show up better, Caleb's is obvious, Eli has 'sunset beach' and Thomas has 'Monterey bay.'

Mr T playing the double marackas
this is how I spend my days, at the bottom of their doggy pile, afraid to move since I might knock someone over

Thomas took his first real bonafide step just a day shy of turning 11 months old!!!

Baby Food Making Operation

The growing season has been pretty rotten here. The rest of the country is boiling but the west coast has had a cold summer, just a few days over 90 degrees here! I like the heat : ) So everything that has come out of my garden, which hasn't been much, goes to the babies. In addition I buy lots of fresh fruits and veggies from the grocery store and make all sorts of different combinations of baby food. I keep it interesting for the babies by building up their repertoire of spices like basil, dill, cinnamon, cumin, rosemary just to name a few. Although I had to cut back on the amount of garlic I give them cause they started having really bad breath. I don't make really big batches of food just enough for two meals. One gets eaten fresh and the other I freeze. I don't like the idea of freezing a bunch because I want the boys to eat as much fresh food as possible and if it's been frozen for weeks it's not really fresh any more.

I kind of got inpatient with the four day wait rule to introduce something new so now I do a two day wait rule. I figure if they are going to have a bad allergy to something it'll probably show up within a day of eating it. So I spent about a week and a half getting everyone up to date with some ingredients so that the boys could have Tom-Kah, a delicious Thai soup that I make (I dabble in Thai cooking). But I'm wondering at what point do parents throw caution to the wind? It's gonna take a million years if I do a two wait rule on all new foods, I call for 2 years.

I guess I'm just not cut out for growing carrots

Breastfeeding Operation

I'm still keeping it up, everyone nurses and the last one also gets a bottle of formula. Although Eli still refuses to drink any formula which I offer it to him every so often just to see if he's changed his mind. Eli is just being ridiculous because he has no problem eating rice cereal made with formula. The biggest challenge lately is just eating enough to keep with the demands of three very active little boys. During the day I nurse each boy 5 times and on a normal night I nurse twice, on a bad one 4 times. So that is 17-19 times a day that I nurse babies! As we are approaching the boys first birthday I'm excited about patting myself on the back for providing the majority of milk my boys have drank for one whole year! It has been one of the biggest challenges of my life, I pumped exclusively until the boys were old enough to nurse on there own and then continued to pump another two months in hopes that I could stimulate my body to produce enough for everyone. And might I add I was all alone with the babies for a good chunk of that time, it is very hard to hold a baby while pumping! I prayed that no one would get too upset while I pumped. Once they turn one, I am giving myself a break. I still want to nurse them as long as they want but not too much past two, cause then it's just creepy (for me, I'm not judging anyone else here). I'm hoping Eli will drink non-formula milk so that I can do a nice rotation of nurse two babies and hand the third one a bottle/sippy cup, which they've proven capable of doing but don't want to as of yet. As they get older I'd like to drop a nursing session here and there and just have them drink regular milk.

How do they sleep?

I get this question a lot. Thomas still sleeps through the night, yay for him! But I should define what sleeping through the night means for me, which is baby wakes up but easily falls back to sleep and does NOT need to eat to fall asleep. So really most nights Thomas needs some light snuggling. Caleb and Eli only wake up once. I haven't layed down the law to stop them but I'm not in a big hurry for them to sleep through the night since I feel pretty well rested the way it is now and I really like to snuggle them. They are only little once and we have till we get sick of it to use alternative methods or maybe they'll just do it on their own like Thomas. On the other hand naps have taken a different turn. Most of the time they would fall asleep nursing or almost and I'd finish the job with a little rocking. It's pretty easy to get them to fall asleep, I've never spent more than 5 minutes if they are actually tired. Ok so lately the minute I put them down they wake up and cry. Since I have the other babies to attend to I'd just say "sorry pal but I've got to get to your brother(s), I'll come back later." Well by the time I get back they are fast asleep. So now most of the time they just put themselvses to sleep!
Eli loves his Ray Allan bear, he's so cute with it. He cuddles it, picks him up, bites his nose, or lays on it : )
it's been HOT!...well just two days really
I love this face

42 min of Peace and Quiet

Watching Eebee's

Thomas, Caleb, Eli

We discovered Eebee's Adventures: Music and Sounds on instant Netflix and the boys are wild over it. It's 42 minutes long and during that time we can count on them being fully entertained and completely unaware of anything else. We play it for them at least once a day usually so Phil and I can eat dinner or if they are getting too cranky before bedtime this buys us some time while we get everyone ready for bed. We've tried other show's like this on Netflix but nothing else compares to Eebee's. I don't want to create tv junkies but let's just call it survival!

A Much Over Due Thank You

Occasionally when I was pregnant and people found out I was expecting triplets they'd say "oh you'll have to hire a nanny" or "oh you'll need a maid." I never knew quite what to say to that since I wasn't sure if they were joking or serious but I think most of the time they were serious. In my mind I'd roll my eyes and think 'yeah right like we can afford that!' Of course, both a maid and nanny are needed, but after three pay cuts, that is not an option. We've never spent a penny in credit card interest and we are not about to now. Thankfully though we have many many wonderful friends and family that have helped us along.

One such friend, Keturah, has cleaned our house every other week since the boys were about two month olds and still does! Another friend, Hava, when the boys were small faithfully came every Wednesday so I could take a nap and make it to meeting that night. Now she comes whenever I need to do errands or go to appointments were I can't take the babies. While Hava is beautiful both inside and out I don't have a flattering picture of her to post but hopefully I'll get one soon!

Our friend Keturah being silly

The boys like watching their friend Oscar play the wii (not pictured here)

The preemie bottles from the NICU are a big hit with the boys. Why are my fav outfits always the silly retro hand-me-downs?

Lamenting

C T E at 4mo old

C E T now

The boys are almost 11 months old and it almost makes me want to cry when I think they won't be babies for much longer. No matter how hard I try to enjoy them, hug them, kiss them, play with them, I just can't get enough of them! Time is slipping away from me and I can't do anything about it. They say there are mom's of 'firsts' and mom's of 'lasts.' Meaning, some mom's can't wait for their kid to experience a new first thing. While other mom's cherish their baby's lasts, like last time in a cute outfit or last time in their crib. I'm definitely a mom of lasts, I discovered that out when at 7lbs I was still squeezing the boys into their preemie clothes.

So I've started thinking about our next stroller options, and I've been eye-ing this pseudo triplet stroller where two sit and one stands. The advantage is that it's the size of a regular double stroller but it accommodates three. I figure when they are bigger I should be able to convince one of them to ride standing. Then it occurred to me that by then they will have outgrown their real triplet stroller, I can't stand the thought of it even though we have a good year before that happens. Even if I wanted to I could never have triplets again or a sweet little preemie to overprotect. I even get a little jealous of expectant M.O.M.'s. It's such a worthwhile exciting adventure and such a unique experience that few ever get to live through. I didn't know it was possible to miss something before it's even over.

On the other hand I do get excited that the boys are learning new things and developing as they should. I just wish it took a little longer.

Update

The boys all free-stand and they can do it without using anything to pull themselves up. They are soooooo close to taking that first step. I just haven't been able to coax them to try it, although Caleb took a mini step were he repositioned one of his legs so he could balance better. I won't count it since he wasn't trying to move forward. Caleb has always had the lead on mobility, he was the first to roll over at a tender 3mo old, so my bets are all on him to be the first to walk.

Sometimes I think the boys have lousy appetites but I don't worry about it since they poop so dang much! I get 150 cloth diapers delivered every week but in reality we use about 120 diapers a week and since the cost is the same we've kept the same order. Well recently on two separate occasions we've actually run out of diapers! Here are some truths:

-There are about 6-9 poopy diapers per day
-Everyone mostly poops in the morning or early afternoon
-Caleb can have a poopy diaper at anytime of the day, that boy can poop!
-Their poop is getting really really smelly : (

Seriously though, they only eat healthy stuff, mostly fruits and vegetables, yogurt, and a little bit of poultry.

Visit to the Oregon Aquarium

I really need to post more often, I'm getting so behind. It's been about two weeks since my mom left. Three weeks ago I got a call from my mom saying she just can't take it any more and NEEDS to see the babies and if it's ok with us she'll hop on a Greyhound that evening and be here the next day. I was more than thrilled to say the least since I had no scheduled visitors to come any time soon. Please if anyone wants to come visit/help with the babies don't be shy we WANT you to come!

Since my mom was here we thought we'd take advantage of the extra help and go to the Oregon coast aquarium. Of course since it's summer there was not a single hotel room to book so we found a cheap motel in Corvallis about an hour away from the aquarium. It worked out really well since the babies could nap on the way there and on the way back. I'd say the boys are a little young for the aquarium but it was still a fun getaway. We also got the chance to explore Corvallis a bit. It's so cute and reminds us of Davis CA. I want to live there! But we say that about every new place we visit : )

The boys love menu's

The boys generally behave really well at restaurants but this time something was off, they were being little rascals!

Flying Babies & Funny Happenings

We discovered a new favorite thing to do with the boys. I seriously have never seen them happier and so excited over something. The pictures are deceitful though, we really aren't tossing the boys up real high but depending on the angle of the camera it appears as if they are up really high. Point being we were being careful and the boys were not in harms way : )










In the waiting room
We were in a waiting room and there were a bunch of toys in the corner for kids to play with. I thought "great that'll keep them entertained," as my mom and I put the boys on the floor it felt like we were unleashing a pack of hyenas onto a carcass. They crawled as fast as they could and devoured the toys. About 10 minutes later a dad and his baby come along, turns out the boy was almost the exact same age as the triplets. This kid was huge, he looked almost muscular and really tall, he totally dwarfed my petite babies. The dad sets down his baby and the kid is totally cautious and just looks around. I'm sure he's probably not used to being around other kids his age. Next the dad puts down his water bottle for his son to play with. The boy just looks at the water bottle as Thomas dashes to it as fast as possible to get to it. A minute later the triplets are fighting over it. The boy finally feels confident enough to start playing with the toys. The boys take no note of him and are totally crowding him out, rubbing shoulders and showing no class what so ever. The triplets have no sense of personal space but I guess after sharing a womb for almost 8 months does that to you.

An Imposter!
A nice person left a comment on one of my old blog posts saying someone was putting my pictures on her blog and claiming they were her's. I checked it out and sure enough my 8 week ultrasound picture of all three babies was there and she had cropped out my name from it! She also had a belly picture of me early on in the pregnancy. I posted a comment to her saying 'that is my belly and those are my babies so remove them from your blog you big fake!' We were going to report her to Blogger but I think someone beat us to it and the blog is now gone from the internet. There were other pictures that were probably all plagiarized from other sources and I could never read more than a sentence or two, her writing style was weird. I don't know what her deal was but she must be crazy. I contemplated making this blog private since a few other blogs have done it for various reasons but I don't think I want to go there yet. I have taken some precautions like I won't allow anonymous comments and all comments will go through review before they are posted. I also want to start watermarking the pictures I post but I need to figure out how to do it first (I suck at technology).

Just Call Their Agent

I submitted a couple of pictures of the boys to a reputable talent agency that only represents children. Literally within an hour I had a reply email saying they'd love to meet with us. I found out later that this was the fastest submission they had ever replied back to. The funny thing is that they won't really be marketed as triplets but instead as individuals, so I guess they are really cute on their own! Of course the triplet effect magnifies their cuteness (ok enough bragging but I am their mom after all).

We are not letting our heads get to big though, this isn't L.A. or New York. We are small fish in a small pond and unless they can score a nationally aired commercial they won't be making big bucks. I'm hoping to put all the money they make into savings accounts that I'll open for each boy.

They got their first break already. Fred Meyer does this baby toddler sale every year and they put out a big advertisement for it. They wanted any two of the boys for one outfit for this difficult pose (spelling?). The pose they wanted was baby in a crawling position looking back and smiling. The purpose was to not only showcase a cute smiling baby but also to showcase the little teddy bear on the baby's butt. We started with Caleb and they did like 40 takes, and couldn't get it, he was too quick on his toes. He'd look back and immediately go to the sitting position. The best they got was Caleb doing the correct pose only he had his mouth open as if he was yelling but not smiling as they wanted. Eli was getting tired at the moment so I thought he wouldn't be as quick as Caleb. They got the right pose only he had a serious face, I should have known this would happen, he was tired! I curse myself for not trying Mr. Confidence himself, Thomas I think would have nailed the pose, oh well, mom was just not on top of her game that day. The pictures will go into review and if they don't accept any of the 'almost' posses then they'll get another kid to try it. We won't know if they'll be in the advertisement until it comes out (not for a few months). I'm not so heart broken since they still got paid : )

You can check their little profiles at the agency website: Puddletown Talent